In brief: Serbs Djokovic, Ivanovic sweep Pacific Life titles
Novak Djokovic and Ana Ivanovic, 20-year-old Serbs who rapidly have established themselves among tennis’ top players, won Pacific Life Open titles Sunday.
No. 3 Djokovic ended American Mardy Fish’s string of upsets at Indian Wells, Calif., with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 victory, and No. 2 Ivanovic cruised to a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova in the women’s championship match.
The Serbian stars’ his and her championships came some two months after they just missed a sweep in the Australian Open. Djokovic beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for the men’s title, and Ivanovic lost to Maria Sharapova in the women’s final.
Both Djokovic and Ivanovic won their championship matches at Indian Wells mostly by powering shots down the lines, Djokovic obviously had a tougher time with No. 98 Fish.
Djokovic was the tournament runner-up last year, losing the final to Rafael Nadal. He knocked off No. 2 Nadal in the semifinals this time.
Despite the loss, Fish had a remarkable run at Indian Wells. He had never beaten two top 10 players in a tournament before, but he upset No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko and No. 7 David Nalbandian before stunning top-ranked Roger Federer in the semifinals.
Auto racing
Raikkonen wins F1 race
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen won the Malaysian Grand Prix and revived Formula One’s title race at Sepang, Malaysia, setting up an expected season-long struggle with McLaren.
Raikkonen had moved ahead of pole-sitting teammate Felipe Massa after the first set of pits stops and cruised to victory, 20 seconds ahead of BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica. McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen was 19 seconds back in third.
Massa spun off on the 31st lap under no pressure while running in second place.
The McLaren pair of Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton started from eighth and ninth places after receiving five grid place penalties for causing interference in qualifying, and was never a threat to the Ferraris.
Hamilton was further compromised by a poor first pit stop, spent much of the race stuck behind the slower Red Bull of Mark Webber, and finished fifth.
Miscellany
Cook, Francis win U.S. Alpine Championships
Battling gusting, swirling winds, Stacey Cook and Kevin Francis claimed the super G titles at the U.S. Alpine Championships at Carrabassett Valley, Maine.
Cook collected her second national title when she edged teammate Leanne Smith by five hundredths of a second. Cook also won the super G crown on the same hill in 2006.
“Alain Bernard set a world record in the 50-meter freestyle (21.50 seconds), after twice lowering the 100 freestyle mark in the previous two days at the European swimming championships at Eindhoven, Netherlands. Also, at the Australian swimming championships and Olympic trials at Sydney, Sophie Edington lowered a day-old world record in the women’s 50-meter backstroke (27.67 seconds).